


Revival of Magic

by Jeunji



Category: Tales of Series, Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Friendship, Friendship/Love, M/M, Multi, Note the relationship tags are not necessarily romantic, Other, Platonic Relationships, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24256537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeunji/pseuds/Jeunji
Summary: It's been around a year after the members of Brave Vesperia teamed up to rid the world of the Adephagos by sacrificing all of their blastia. The world is still adapting to its new lifestyle without the use of magic. Science has crept its way in where magic was left behind, introducing the world into a fresh new era of technology.However, strange occurrences, those eerily similar to magic, seems to be resurging even without the use of blastia, causing disarray in the civilians who are barely struggling without barriers as is.The members of Brave Vesperia, along with some new and familiar faces, take the task upon themselves to figure out what, or who, is behind it all.
Relationships: Estellise Sidos Heurassein & Flynn Scifo, Estellise Sidos Heurassein & Yuri Lowell, Estellise Sidos Heurassein/Rita Mordio, Flynn Scifo & Original Character(s), Judith & Yuri Lowell, Karol Capel & Everyone, Karol Capel & Yuri Lowell, Karol Capel/Rita Mordio, Raven & Flynn Scifo, Yuri Lowell & Everyone, Yuri Lowell & Flynn Scifo, Yuri Lowell & Original Character(s), Yuri Lowell & Repede, Yuri Lowell & Rita Mordio
Kudos: 5





	1. Small Harbour Town

The busied streets and loud crowds ruptured with excitement and life, filling the area with noise and community. Several merchants had set up stands to sell their local goods of both the materials, scraps of difficult monster battles and freshly made gels of all shapes and flavours. Their voices cried out in attempts to gain the position as the loudest and most appealing to draw in customers. Despite the hot sun hanging over the civilians’ heads, the cool ocean breeze travelled through the market, wafting and weaving through the cracks and crevices of those walking around making the temperature colder than one would expect. The loud clatter of travelers' heavy steel armour merely added onto the noise, but since most were used to what that signified, the civilians parted making a clearing in the middle. 

Two heavily armoured guards, donned with the imperial flag marched forward with their spears pointed high. Closely behind, was a young man; his short blond hair crossing over his face with his bangs barely touching the top of his eyes, keeping his hand steady on his blade gently resting by his side. To his right was a proud orange-haired woman, also wearing a similar armour piece as the man, suspiciously gawking at the lady civilians who seemed to be fawning over the young blond knight. On his left, a rather short, almost dwarf-sized mage with glasses and a dark green bowl cut, with a small cowlick sticking out from the top of his head resembling that of an apple, accompanied him cautiously making his judgments as well.

"Is that Flynn Scifo?"

"I heard the commandant was a young blond-haired man, I think that's him!"

"He's so handsome~"

Girls cooed and chimed from the audience in a playful hushed whisper. Flynn paid them no mind, he had other important matters he had to take care of. Besides, he was used to hearing that often. The orange-haired woman glared at them with a loud "EXCUSE ME." As she pushed them aside. 

"We're riding the boat from here correct? Some sort of magic is being used on civilians in Aurnion… It’s so strange." The mage recollected, making sure he had his facts correct. Flynn nodded as they continued their way to a large dock with several ships tied up or anchored down.

"And without any blastia to protect people, along with the numbers of cases it’s been occurring, it's a matter that's reached the Imperial guard." He replied softly with a saddened sigh.

This spiked a reaction in the orange-haired knight as she quivered her lips until she couldn’t hold in her thoughts any longer. She quickly turned around to him, placing her hand over her chest. "Captain Flynn, you didn't have to come with us-! Witcher and I could've handled-" 

Flynn turned his gaze to his friend which caused her to quiet down mid-sentence. He gave a small smile with a short kind laugh. 

"Sodia. I know you two can. I believe that, but I also can't sit around while the innocent get hurt. Capua Tre seems to be doing alright with the help of the Union, and Aurnion seems to be the most pressing matter.” 

She seemed to accept that answer and looked away knowing he was right.

Witcher nodded as he adjusted his glasses. “It is true. Someone being able to manipulate magic despite there being no more blastia is of concern. Who knows what we’re dealing with.”

They all made their way onto a small boat prepped for the 5 of them walking up the old wooden board creaking with each step.

“We’ll just have to keep our guard up and play it safe,” Flynn replied with determination as he looked out towards the ocean, small waves rippling in the sun.

* * *

Their ship boarded on a small coastline with its bow carving through the sand securely. The sailors hastily lowered the ramp for the knights. They dropped into the sand as Flynn began hastily walking towards the forest glancing behind him quickly.

“He really can’t wait can he…” Witcher muttered to himself with a smile as he and Sodia quickly caught up.

They maneuvered their way through the forest arriving at a large mountain carefully wrapping around the smaller town which Flynn had helped build, Aurnion. Something was definitely wrong as a large cloud of dust sheltered the sounds of armour clashing. Flynn and his crew instantly ran over as he instinctively unsheathed his blade from his holster. A large shelled reptilian monster was aggressively pulling a knight by the leg to bring it closer to its jaw, drool dripping all over their armour. Flynn rushed over, to the surprise of the creature, and swiftly thrusted his sword into the soft flesh of the monster’s neck, causing it to collapse to the ground instantly. The knight scrambled upwards grabbing his sword with a hushed thank you as he ran back into the town to assist other knights.

“Sodia! Witcher! We need to clear out this wave of monsters. Don’t let them get close to the gate!” Flynn shouted, as he pulled out his sword from the monster's corpse and began running towards the heat of the battle. The two of them nodded following close behind, Sodia readying her blade and Witcher pulling out his machinery. 

Flynn whisked his sword around striking deep into the chest of a large rhino-looking monster, its tusk a sharp metal blade. The monster swung his head down to which Flynn blocked with his weapon, pushing it to the side with all his might. The shove made its head flick up, and to seize the opportunity, he spun his sword in an upwards formation cutting into the lower jaw of the creature. Witcher, on the other hand, pressed a small button on a little machine tucked away on his hip, pulling out a large metal staff from his back. He struck the staff against the ground, kicking up electricity as he pointed it towards the monsters. He opened his eyes as three brilliant lightning bolts shot out and hit two mane covered beasts, blasting them back onto the ground. Sodia herself drove her sword into the skull of the left one, with the other knights taking out the right one. Flynn looked around, expecting there to be more, but thankfully the horde was over. Taking out a rough cloth from his pouch, he quickly wiped the blood off his blade, tucking it back into his holster. Wasting no time he ran up to one of the knights in charge of guarding Aurnion.

“Is everyone alright? We tried to make it here as fast as we could,” He answered in a soft but serious tone, once again peering around to make sure there were no more monsters.

“Thank you, Commandant Flynn. We are alright now thanks to you,” The guard replied letting out a quiet sigh of relief as he stood up firm and straight. Witcher and Sodia arrived close behind.

“We heard something about magic, or a curse, happening to the civilians here. What’s been going on?” Witcher asked intending to get directly to the point.

The guard appeared uneasy, but he cleared his throat and turned towards the town. “It may be best if we show you, follow me.”

The town was now quieting down as a cool chill flowed through the air with the sun shielded by clouds and the rocky mountains. Each chill creaked throughout the sturdy log cabins the townspeople had built during their escape from the capital. Despite it generally being a lively town, most civilians weren’t in sight, which was most peculiar. The soldier guided them to a tent gently pulling up the thick fabric flap covering the door. Inside were several knights and civilians sitting with worried expressions on their faces.

“H-huh? Why are there so many knights here?” Sodia shouted in surprise.

Flynn turned towards the guard with suspicion as he narrowed his eyes. “Keeping the knights quarantined in here could’ve gotten you all killed! Why aren’t you all at your posts?” 

"S-sorry sir! We figured that would not be the wisest course of action, given that… um… let us show you." The guard cleared his throat and looked at one of the Knights who was sitting in the crowd.

The man stood himself up, looking down at a middle-aged gentleman who followed suit. They both made their way outside with Flynn and his crew following close behind, rather confused. The knight looked at the civilian, waiting for approval. The man winced, but proceeded to nod in agreement. Without speaking the knight began walking away from the civilian before a semi-transparent dome appeared between the two of them lighting up in a bright blue, which caused them to both cry out in pain. They dropped to the ground with Flynn running over kneeling down on one knee.

“What just happened?!” He yelled looking over to the guard who had guided them there. 

“Well, a few days ago, we noticed the monsters around were getting rather restless. We kept our guard up, but didn’t think all too much about it, until they started trying to ravage the village. This traveller who was staying with us at our Inn for a while ambushed us, while we were fighting the monsters, and used some sort of weird magic.”

Flynn’s eyes widened, “Magic? But that can’t be right!”

The guard looked over to the knight who had made his way closer to the civilian as to not activate the spell again, “Well anyways, the spell she used knocked us back, and before we regained our senses she was gone. That’s when things started going wrong and now we have people trapped in these barriers.”

Witcher had already begun mumbling to himself trying to analyze what could have caused this. Without blastia, he didn't have the luxury of analyzing with magic, “Incredible… I h-haven’t seen magic in over a year… if this _is_ magic of course. The power used is very similar to that of a barrier blastia, but that makes no sense since they should all be gone-!” He gasped, self monologuing his discoveries.

The knight chimed in as he assisted the older civilian up, “Yeah and we couldn’t go out and fight because the civilians would have to be in the heat of the battle as well. The only knights we sent out to guard were those who were not struck with that blade.”

Flynn propped up, bringing his hand to his chin. “That is an issue… we can’t have the civilians get hurt, but then who will defend Aurnion from the monsters…” He let out an angered sigh. “Did you happen to see where this woman went?” 

The guard nodded and pointed towards the forest. “I apologize I can’t say anything more, but all I know is she headed off in that direction around a day ago.” 

Flynn stood himself up and looked at the two members of his crew. “Witcher, you should stay here and work on deciphering this… spell. Sodia and I will head out to find those two.” 

“B-But- I should come with you Captain Flynn!” Witcher exclaimed in surprise. 

Flynn shook his head and placed his hand on Witcher’s shoulder. “They need you here. The sooner you figure out how this works, the sooner the knights can go back to protecting the village. I know you can do it, you’re the capital’s most skilled mage after all,” He said with a smile.

“O-okay.” Witcher replied softly looking down at his feet.

“As for you and I, Sodia, we should head out as soon as possible. We don’t want her reaching any more towns.” Flynn adjusted his silvery-white arm guards and stood himself up firm and proper. 

Sodia nodded and placed her hand across her chest plate as a respectful salute to her commandant. The group then followed the guard to the stables where they could ride their mounts, the cavaluma, into the forest. The creatures had sharp beaks with a blue mane flowing down their necks, covered in short white hair, a few speckles of darker patches splashed across their natural colouration. Effortlessly, Flynn pulled himself onto the saddle and waited for Sodia to be ready as well. The guard and Witcher were both standing under the monster stalls seeing them off.

“We leave the rest to you Witcher. Good luck,” Flynn softly replied as he cracked the lead causing the cavaluma to begin pacing forward, its hooves kicking up the dirt. Sodia followed suit, with witcher and the guard saluting them off.


	2. The Forest

Trees and foliage lightly hit Flynn and Sodia’s faces as they rode through the thick dense forests. Dark orange rays of sunlight peeked through the cracks of the trees giving them a minuscule amount of light for their path. Since the continent of Hypionia was mostly uninhabited aside from Aurnion and a few ruins, the land was mostly thick forest and prairies. The sun was starting to set, and Flynn had no intention of slowing himself down. Eventually, Sodia spoke up given that nightfall was beginning to coat the already dark forest in a pitch-black void.

"Captain Flynn, I think we should stop here for tonight, we won't be able to get anywhere like this," She quietly suggested with hesitance, knowing once he was set on something there would be no turning back. Flynn continued riding without responding, his face scrunching at Sodia's words.

"...Captain... Captain Flynn?" She quietly repeated checking to make sure he was okay. There was more silence, before Flynn caved, tugging at the reins and let out an angered exhausted sigh.

"Okay. You're right. It would probably be best if we set up camp here…"

He didn’t like leaving things unfinished, and he felt if he wasn’t pursuing them, they were merely getting farther away. This time he wanted to make sure he didn’t make the same mistake as last time, simply holding back until it was too late. Sodia let out a small sigh of relief, glad that he agreed to stop for the night. Riding out in the middle of the night was a bad idea as they had no way to see, and were prime targets for monsters. Sodia slowed her mount down, gently stroking its mane before hopping off and wrapping the thick rope lead around the coarse bark of a nearby tree. Flynn pulled his mount around to regroup with Sodia and proceeded to follow suit.

There were some logs stored as extra supplies on the back of their mounts so Flynn carefully untied the rope as Sodia gathered loose twigs and sticks scattered on the dirt floor. After arranging everything into a nice pile for a fire, Flynn struck a piece of flint on some extra steel he had, flashing a spark into the leaves bunched at the bottom of their fire pit. Within no time flat, the two of them had a fire going, illuminating the area around them. They were in the middle of the forest, completely surrounded by raw nature, undisturbed by man.

By this point the sun had almost fully set, leaving them with only their fire to guide them as their light. As they munched on some rations, Sodia could tell Flynn had his mind completely focused on finding the culprits behind this recent case. Being a part of his brigade, she knew it wasn’t her place to say anything, and her job was to follow him faithfully no matter what. Flynn wrapped up his meal quickly and turned his attention to Sodia.

“We leave at sunrise tomorrow to continue our pursuit. So… you should rest while you can. I’ll keep watch,” He said sternly, but with a hint of softness, he wanted to make sure his soldiers were all prepped for anything he had planned. Sodia nodded and laid herself down, knowing any protest would be futile. She closed her eyes to fall asleep. Flynn smiled, seeing that Sodia took heed to his suggestion, and continued staring out into the forest with his hand on the handle of his blade.

* * *

Around 3 hours had passed, Flynn was still diligently watching, but his human instincts were kicking in causing him to feel drowsy. He knew he could push through it and keep awake as it was his duty. The fire itself was dimly lit by this point, barely keeping itself alive. Suddenly a large crack was heard from the forest as a distant shout echoed throughout the trees. 

“S-STAY BACK! S-SOMEONE HELP!” 

The voice cried out causing Flynn to jolt upwards and unsheathe his sword. He quickly went over to Sodia and nudged her with his foot turning back towards the shout.

“Sodia! Get up! There’s someone out there!” He shouted, causing her to whisk awake as well. It took her a few seconds to realign herself, but she grabbed her sword and saw Flynn already running off to the sound.    
“Captain Flynn! W-wait!” She shouted trying to catch up with him.

Flynn continued running towards the direction of shouts, hearing the mysterious ethereal cries of a monster paired with the scuffling of someone backing up. Once he made it into a small clearing, he saw a large semi-transparent being with large claws, an unrecognizable face and floating chains around it swirling in a dark blue circle. Plasma dripped from its see-through cloth lighting up the ground in a puddle of a faint blue before seeping into the dirt. Flynn turned to the right and saw a young pink-haired woman pushed up against the tree out of fear. She wore an ocean blue shirt with a dark grey cloak wrapped around the back, resembling the colours of the knights. Immediately she reminded him of Estelle as he jumped in front and drew his blade to the monster. 

“It’s alright, you’re safe now! The Imperial Knights are here to protect you.” Flynn shouted, tightening his posture and lowering his sword in a defensive stance. Glancing to the side he noticed Sodia hadn’t caught up yet, but he figured he would hold off until she made her way over. Surely he could handle it until then. He had never seen a monster like this in any of his explorations thus far. To his surprise, a dry, quiet unimpressed voice called out from behind him.

“Oh boy, here comes the calvary.”

Suddenly, Flynn arched his chest forward and winced as he felt the sting of hot blood begin pouring from his back from a sharp object piercing through the fabric of his shirt and into his skin. He turned his head around, his eyes wide as he faced the girl once more. She was holding an intricate steel-lined umbrella, a weapon he had not seen before, with the tip coated in dark red. As her eyes met his, she let out a quiet gasp of surprise.

“Captain Flynn!” He heard Sodia’s voice cry out in distress, his head turning towards her as she ran forward with her sword at her side. 

“Flynn…?” The mysterious pink-haired girl muttered with surprise upon hearing the name. Before he could react, he felt a sharp pain from the top of his head causing everything to blur. The muffled sounds and visions of Sodia clashing her sword against the weapon of someone else faded into silence as everything turned to black.


	3. Entering Danghrest

The sun beamed down from the sky, the air still cool and crisp from the morning. A young woman with hair tied up in a high ponytail walked down a forest path, one meant to connect cities and allow travellers to pass. Dark black bangs that swooped to the left kept falling in front of her face, until she eventually tucked it behind her glasses. Behind her was a large black backpack with a large thin metallic square with holes on one side carefully wrapped up so she wouldn’t have to carry it. She was adventuring, meaning to find herself to Danghrest so she could find a guild that best suited her interests. Despite the fresh air, there was a bit of tension since fighting monsters had become much more difficult since the riddance of blastia. She hummed to herself, taking in all the different trees and wildlife that surrounded her. It was important that she kept to the path, just to stay extra safe, since it would be much harder to find a lost traveller off the path. A large glimmer of sunlight flashed in her vision, causing her to bring her hand to her face.

“What..?” She muttered to herself as she stepped to the side to get out of the glare. The sunlight was reflecting off an obstructed steel object wedged into a tree branch. She couldn’t quite make out what it was, considering the leaves blocked most of her view. Cautiously, she marched over, whipping the square out from behind her, and steadily holding a small little bar sticking out from it. Ever so slowly, she stared up into the tree from underneath. Tattered teal covered cloth and armour draped over the branch until she realized,  _ that’s a person. _

Before she could properly react, the branch snapped at the seams as the wood and body crashed down right on top of her leg with a loud  **_CRACK._ ** __

“AAAAH!” She cried out, fully well realizing that was her bone that made the sound. 

This caused the man, Flynn, to flash awake and sit up, looking down at where he was and realizing his full weight was on a branch, on someone’s leg. He scrambled and fell to the side as the girl instinctively reached over trying to push off the branch that was still there. Wasting no time, he assisted her with pushing it off of her leg, finally freeing the painful pressure. Tears began welling up in the girls eyes as she merely winced in pain with a quiet “hhhghhhh”. The man opened his mouth to speak just as startled and shocked to find out what he had done.

“I-I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!” He shouted looking down at the wound, her leg looked relatively straight, but was beginning to turn a dark purple underneath her leggings. 

“I-I think it’s b-broken…” She gritted through her teeth, her eyes closed tightly as she tried to push through the pain.

“We need to get you somewhere where they can treat you…” Flynn stood up quickly and looked around, not recognizing where he was. He immediately felt the pain rush from his head. Feeling lightheaded he dropped back down to one knee pulling his hand over his head instinctively. He took a few seconds to refocus his thoughts from the sharp pain. “...Where’s the… the nearest town or city?”

The girl opened her eyes and looked up, tears rolling down her cheek as the adrenaline began cooling itself down.

“I-it’s Danghrest… About… a 20 minutes walk from here…" She muttered, still in immense pain but managing to catch her breath. 

"Danghrest…" he muttered to himself looking around once more. A small headache pierced his head as he tried to recall. "How… can that be? That would mean I'm somehow all the way in Tolbyccia…" 

The girl simply ignored his self ramblings as she tried to stand herself up immediately dropping once more. Her leg was in too much pain to move. This brought Flynn's attention back to her as he widened his eyes. 

"Oh! I'm very sorry about that, we have more pressing matters than that right now. We need to get you to Danghrest as soon as possible. Umm…" He looked nervously at the girl before shaking his head. "By my duty as a knight, I erm... I can carry you there." He offered his hand to help her up. She looked a bit embarrassed by the notion but was too focused on the pain to refuse.

"Okay. Thank you." She replied trying to wipe the stream of tears from her cheeks. Flynn gently picked her up, along with her strange square object, which he presumed to be a weapon. He stumbled a bit as the pain from the wound on his back surged through his body, but he managed to grit through it. He looked both ways, before the girl pointed in the direction of Danghrest. 

"So… we got off to a rough start… aha… I'm Jumi. Don't feel bad about my leg, I shouldn't've been under the tree so carelessly. So I'm sorry about that." She answered, feeling awkward from the silence and how she was now being carried by this knight. The shakiness was disturbing her leg quite a bit so she let out a sharp gasp of pain. The knight slowed his pace slightly to not disturb her leg.

"Oh, no no, please. Don't apologize, that happened way too quickly for a person to react, even I'm not sure how I got there… I'm Commandant Flynn, but ah, feel free to drop the formalities and just call me Flynn.”

“Commandant Flynn? Like, Imperial Commandant Flynn?? From the Capital?” The girl said in surprise, wondering what a commandant like that was doing all by himself, much less unconscious on a tree branch. She didn’t know what he looked like, but heard the tales about how he saved the world from the Adephagos. 

“Yes, that would be me,” He nodded readjusting his arms to not drop the stranger’s cargo. 

Jumi suddenly felt like she was being rather informal, given the presence she didn’t realize she was in. “If you don’t mind me asking, uh… what were-” She paused to once again let out a grunt of pain. “-were you doing in that tree?” 

Flynn frowned, but finally had a chance to give that question some thought. What WAS he doing in that tree?

“I’m not quite sure, but last I remember I was in the woods of Hypionia with the most skilled knight in my Brigade, we were chasing down a criminal who seemed to be using some form of magic again. But…” He winced. “I was careless. I let my guard down, and got tricked, resulting in me being separated from my crew.” 

The girl tilted her head, tapping the crux of her finger on her chin, “Hypionia…? Isn’t that on the other side of the world?” She questioned in a disbelieving tone, widening her eyes as she remembered to stay formal.

“Yes… So I’m not quite sure how I got here. They got away… I hope Sodia is safe,” He muttered to himself feeling like he failed his task.

“Well, it’s good for the Capital that the Commandant is unharmed. And I’m sure your knight is safe, you all get that position because you’re strong, right? But how could someone use magic again? It was you who sacrificed all the blastia, wasn’t it?” Jumi asked, seeing the peak of Danghrest’s broken blastia through the tips of the trees. The sun began to darken and change the sky into a golden orange hue, much like a sunset, as the aer around Danghrest left the town shrouded in a permanent sunset. 

“Well… me and Brave Vesperia. And you’re right, she can defend herself. As for magic, there shouldn’t be no, but…” He shook his head as they arrived at the bridge crossing the giant river flowing around the city. 

The saltiness of the ocean’s water from the estuary tingled the air with a bit of a musky smell. Danghrest itself, being the second largest city, had Victorian styled buildings, with old brick tiled roofs and stone walls held up by wooden supports. It was more lively than the Capital since there was no distinction between class and quarters, simply guilds and civilians. Several cloth lined bazaars were stationed so people could purchase the merchandise of certain guilds, such as weapons from the Smithing Guild, or goods from the Fortune’s Market. Flynn carefully traversed across the newly built bridge, reconstructed after Phaeroh’s attack, trying to get to the Inn as fast as possible. Immediately, people began gossiping about the strange appearance of the Capital’s Commandant, by himself, carrying what seemed to be a random civilian. Everyone had their head turned and were whispering theories and questions quite loudly. Jumi held her hand up to her face in embarrassment, being carried so helplessly. Flynn noticed her reaction and let out a quick awkward laugh.

“I’m sorry about this, being a Commandant it’s quite easy to be recognized in public…”

“Don’t worry. I just wish people wouldn’t stare.” Jumi replied, letting out a quiet sigh of relief once she saw the “Inn” sign come into view.

The noise and whispers seemed to quiet down once the door closed behind them, revealing two stalls, one for the Innkeeper and one for a Fortune’s Market merchant. Inside were a few wooden tables with chairs scattered around in a messy circle. Fluffy cushions were seated on the back so guests could relax and lounge before adventuring again. The rooms where guests were to sleep were connected directly to the front, making the whole Inn feel like a giant room.The Innkeeper greeted Flynn like a normal customer, widening his eyes once he realized it was Flynn Scifo, Commandant of the Imperial Knights. 

“Hello, we need a bed for her to rest and a doctor, she’s been injured,” Flynn politely requested as Jumi gave an awkward wave. This was not how she planned to enter Danghrest in the slightest. 

“Yes, right away,” The Innkeeper nodded, gesturing to one of the clean made beds tucked in the corner. A soft warm comforter covered the bed with yellow and orange quilting all neatly tucked and folded in the sides. Flynn gently set Jumi down and propped her weapon next to her on a bedside table.

“Thanks. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I was by myself there! Although I probably wouldn’t’ve broken my leg if you weren’t in that tree.” She smirked once again, wincing from the pain in her leg. Flynn looked a bit sad as he brushed his hair back a bit.

“And I apologize to have hurt you. I hope my service somewhat makes up for what I’ve done.” 

“O-oh, no, don't apologize! I was making a small joke, it seems it didn’t quite land.” Jumi awkwardly laughed waving her hands in front of her. This seemed to relax Flynn a bit who presumed she was being serious.

“Well, I’ll try and find you a doctor, please hang tight and I will be back with help as soon as I can.” He placed his hand on his chest to be respectful as he turned the corner and began walking off. 

However, once he got a reasonable distance a familiar semi-transparent dome appeared over the two of them as a bright flash of blue illuminated between the both of them. Pain and what felt like stifling electricity struck through the two of them causing Flynn and Jumi to cry out in pain as Flynn fell to one knee. In an instant, the pain from the shock was over as he stood up and immediately took a step back, his eyes wide with fear. The Innkeeper and Merchant merely stared at Flynn in complete surprise.

“No… No it… it can’t be…” He muttered under his breath looking up as the dome seemed to fade away.

“W-What… What was that..?” Jumi gasped completely surprised and in more pain than she already was. Flynn continued walking backwards until his back hit the small border separating the lounge area from the beds.

“I- I think I was affected as well…” He placed his gauntlet on his back, remembering where he got stabbed.

_ “It must’ve been around that time-!”  _ He thought to himself. This had no meaning to Jumi, she wanted more context, and fast. 

“What do you mean? By what??” 

“It means… well… exactly what just happened. If I stray too far away, a barrier of sorts will stop me.” 

Jumi paused and looked to the side.

“Wait, so you can’t go too far away from… me?!” She shouted, not really liking the idea of being chained to someone who she doesn’t know too well. Flynn turned to Jumi and stood himself up.

“I fear that may be the case. But don’t worry, my trusted mage, Witcher, is figuring out a way to dispel this.” 

“Wouldn’t that mean he’s all the way in Hypionia??” Jumi asked, getting a bit more concerned by the second. What she was saying was true, and Flynn didn’t have an answer for her. Before anyone could say anything, the Inn door swung open as the quickened sound of claws scratching against the wooden floor scrambled over towards Flynn. A dark blue dog with white tufts of fur on his face and belly ran over and began circling around him. He had a huge scar on his one eye and an old man’s pipe in his fangs.

“Repede-?” Flynn shouted, watching the dog circle around him wagging his tail. He brought his attention to the door and saw two familiar figures pop their heads in. A small brown haired boy with his spiky hair brushed to the back, wearing a green striped shirt with baggy pants and a large navy blue bag ran in immediately after Repede, widening his eyes at the sight of Flynn.

“It is you! Sir — I mean uh, Flynn!” The young boy shouted, turning around to wait for his friend to enter. A long dark purple haired man casually marched in, wearing black clothes, folded his arms as he raised a single brow. 

“So the rumours were true. Looks like it’s quite hard to miss that pretty blond hair of yours.” The man teased sarcastically, with a smirk on his face.

“Yuri! And Karol as well… What are you three doing here?” Flynn asked, surprised to see them all enter at the same time as they made their way closer. 

“We finished up our latest guild request, and then heard everyone talking about how they saw you enter the town,” Karol chimed in with pride.

“Besides, we should be asking  _ you _ that,  _ Imperial Guard Commandant Flynn,” _ Yuri said in a dry tone waving his hands lazily in the air.

“Well… I needed to get Jumi here to safety, after I—” He cleared his throat covering his mouth with his hand, a bit embarrassed. “—broke her leg. Accidentally.” 

“Um, hello. I presume you are all friends of Flynn’s, like he said, I’m Jumi. Nice to meet you.” Jumi quietly chimed in not wanting to disrupt the interaction going on.

“My name’s Karol!” The boy grinned pointing his thumb to his chest.

“Yuri. And he’s Repede.” The dark purple haired man replied in a low tone, gesturing to the dog who was sniffing Jumi’s hand. He then turned his attention back to Flynn. “Geez Flynn. Only you could manage something like ‘accidentally’ breaking someone’s leg.” 

“And only you could tease me mere seconds after seeing each other again.” Flynn jabbed back with a look of slight disappointment. Yuri smirked and folded his arms together looking over at Jumi.

“So, what’s the full story here?”

“I found him unconscious in a tree, but I was dumb and stood directly under it.” She exhaled, brushing her hand to pull the bangs out of her face. Carefully taking off her glasses she wiped away a smudge on the lens with the cloth of her shirt.

“And well, there went my leg,” She said with a laugh, wincing immediately from shaking herself too much.

“Do you need a doctor?” Karol exclaimed in surprise realizing that there wasn’t one in the building. Jumi looked nervously at Flynn, who gave a similar expression in return.

“Uh, yes please. That would be great.” Jumi replied with a smile she began trying to take off her boot, before having to stop due to the immense pain. Without hesitation Flynn walked over and helped her take it off. 

“Okay! Be right back!” Karol nodded and immediately rushed off with Repede following close by, accidentally slamming the wooden door behind him. The Innkeeper let out a shout, but Karol was too far long gone. Yuri made his way closer pulling over one of the lounge chairs and flopping himself over top, drooping his sword to the side.

“And what were you doing there? Deciding to take a nap in a tree doesn’t seem like your style.” Yuri asked, side glancing at Flynn and resting his arms on the backing of the chair. Flynn let out a sigh, as he felt a slight twinge of pain from the wound on his back.

“I was attacked in Hypionia, and got separated from my crew. We made our way to Aurnion to stop an unidentified woman and investigate a strange spell, or arte, that affected people once struck by the weapon of this woman.”

Yuri paused and sat up properly, balancing his elbows on his knees.

“Artes? You mean to tell me they casted an arte without a blastia? As far as we know only Estelle can do that.” 

“We aren’t sure if it’s an arte, but it certainly behaved like one,” Flynn explained, unsure of what more to say.

“And that same thing was also used on him...well I guess us now.” Jumi added as a confirmation.

Flynn winced and crossed his arms.

“It seems that way. Sodia and I attempted to chase them down, but we got tricked. When I came to, I woke up here.” 

“Huh. Sounds like quite the story.” Yuri grunted through a casual stretch. The door swung open once more as Karol energetically bounded back to the group with Repede at his side. A doctor wearing a white coat followed closely behind looking to see who his patient was. Jumi waved to introduce herself, and explained the injury of her leg to the doctor. He nodded and opened up a bag of tools so he could properly access the damage.

“This spell, or arte for that matter, seems to chain individuals together. A large portion of the knights and civilians in Aurnion seemed to be affected. I can’t imagine why anyone would use a spell like that…” Flynn continued, the group looking over to Jumi to see how the doctor was doing. She let out a loud sharp gasp of pain as he snapped the bones into the proper position. Tears began trickling from her eyes once more as the doctor reassured that was the hard part. He began tightly tying up a cast to help her out, making the bandages snug and comfortable. Without a blastia, he couldn’t use healing artes to instantly cure her.

“Huh? There’s magic being used again?” Karol asked, curious to engage in the conversation he missed. Flynn gave Karol a nod as the doctor began packing up his things.

“Knowing you, you’re going to head back to Hypionia as soon as you can right?” Yuri asked, knowing full well how Flynn’s thought process went. 

Flynn hesitated, and looked over to Jumi, “Well, that would be the plan, but I do not wish to put Jumi in any sort of danger.” 

Jumi wiped away her tears and let out a sigh of relief now that her leg felt a lot more secure, even if it was still in a lot of pain.

“Well, if you really need to get back there, I don’t mind. I was planning to join a guild here, but I guess not anymore!” She teased again with a smirk. Flynn immediately had a look of worry, to which Jumi widened her eyes and waved her hands.

“A joke. It was another… um… yeah. But you’re a commandant, if you need to go to Hypionia, I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one holding you back. Joining a guild can wait.” She replied, realizing that this seemed to be important to Flynn. 

Karol’s eyes lit up in excitement, “Wait, you were coming to Danghrest to join a guild? What sort of guild?” 

Jumi looked around the room and saw the pure passion behind Karol’s eyes, and noticed a smirk forming on Yuri’s face as he shook his head endearingly.

“Uh, I guess one that does quests for those in need. I’ve wanted to help others, and since Danghrest is close, I felt like there’s definitely a guild here for m-” 

“Join Brave Vesperia!!” Karol shouted, interrupting Jumi’s sentence. 

“Huh? Brave… Vesperia?” She looked at him and tilted her head.  _ Flynn mentioned that name earlier, didn’t he? _ Her thoughts rang as she attempted to recall the conversation.

“W-well, you don’t have to join right away… but Yeah! It’s our guild! It’s got Me, Yuri, Judy and Raven so far, and our main goal is to do exactly what you said! Oh — and Repede of course. ” Karol beamed with a smile placing his hands on his hips. “If we escorted you and Flynn back to Hypionia, you could see what we’re all about! Plus, that’s a pretty important mission, escorting a Commandant.”

Jumi smiled as she sat up, but kept her leg straight. She wanted to properly face everyone now that the splint secured her leg. “Oh! I mean, yeah! That sounds like a good idea. You guys are friends of Flynn’s too right? It would make sense to hire you over a random guild. That’s fine by me.” 

Karol pumped his hand in the air with excitement as he turned towards Yuri with a grin from ear to ear. “Did you hear that Yuri??” 

Repede let out a contented bark and wagged his tail excitedly watching Karol hyped up. Yuri let out a quiet chuckle and noticed Flynn was looking at him with a skeptical gaze.

“Looks like the boss has his mind made up. How about it Flynn?” Yuri smirked, gently standing up from his chair and pushing it into the table with a shove.

Flynn caved in with a modest look of defeat, “I suppose so… I don’t want Jumi getting hurt again under my watch. As a knight that’s my duty. And the spell will certainly make the travel more difficult.” 

Jumi got a bit annoyed that she was being treated so helplessly from a mere broken leg.

“Hey! I can fight! Maybe not as good as a commandant, but… Agh. If only my leg wasn’t broken! I’ll still do what I can. I don’t wanna be a burden to you guys.”

“Don’t worry Jumi! You won’t be, we got your back! But we should rest here for tonight, that’ll give us time to find Raven and bring him over here!” Karol explained giving a slight unsure glance to Yuri who gave a supportive thumbs up. Regaining his confidence Karol straightened himself up to look more determined. 

Flynn shook his head and closed his eyes tightly, wanting to leave sooner, but knowing that wouldn’t be the wisest plan. “Alright, that’s probably for the best. We’ll rest up and leave early in the morning.”


End file.
